BILL ANALYSIS
SB 570
Page 1
Date of Hearing: July 14, 1999
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Carole Migden, Chairwoman
SB 570 (Alarcon) - As Amended: 4/27/99
Policy Committee: Public
SafetyVote: 6-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local
Program:YesReimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY :
This bill increases penalties for disrupting or threatening
school personnel on school grounds. Specifically, this bill:
1)Creates a 1, 2, or 3-year sentence enhancement for
communicating a threat against a principal, teacher, school
board member, or other school personnel.
2)Increases the penalty for interfering with any school activity
- by anyone over 16 years of age - as follows:
a) For a first conviction, a person can be fined a minimum
of $500 and/or jailed for up to one year. (Current law
sets the minimum fine at $100 and/or jail time for up to
six months.)
b) For a second conviction, a person can be fined $1,000
and must serve at least 10 days, up to one year.
c) Upon a third conviction, a person can be fined for
$1,000 and must serve at least 90 days, up to a year.
3)Authorizes the court to grant probation or suspend the
sentence.
4)Increases the penalty for any parent or guardian who disrupts
classwork or extracurricular activities. The penalties would
be similar to the scheme in 1), above.
5)States legislative intent that teachers, administrators, and
aides report missing children to a law enforcement agency in a
SB 570
Page 2
timely manner.
FISCAL EFFECT :
Unknown GF costs, potentially in excess of $200,000. In
1997-98, 513 persons were committed to state prison for
terrorist threats. If two percent of this number made threats
against school personnel, annual costs would be about $220,000
beginning in one or two years when the enhancement would begin,
increasing annually for three years to the extent offenders
received a two or three-year enhancement.
COMMENTS :
1)Rationale. According to the author, "recent incidents have
shown us that all too often violence is used or threatened
when conflicts arise at schools. A principal in my district
was recently beaten and another threatened. This bill
increases penalties against those who bring violence to school
campuses and sends the message that violence in our schools
will not be tolerated."
1)Should threats against school personnel result in longer
sentences than threats against other persons? As noted in the
Public Safety Committee analysis, the author refers to a
principal who was beaten. That crime, however, could be
prosecuted as a felony under current law and the offender sent
to prison for three, four, or five years. If the attacker
inflicted great bodily injury, the penalty could be enhanced
by three additional years in prison under current law. Is the
aggressive use of current law by prosecutors insufficient?
Analysis Prepared by: Geoff Long/ APPR. / (916) 319-2081